Got up early to light the kiln, only to find that a split had appeared in the connecting pipe overnight. Certain that the firing would not be postponed, started to look up caravan/gas supply shops that are open on Sundays….no joy. Must say a big thank you to the friendly man at Galleon Marine in Odiham (who rents the canal boats), who had a treasure trove of gadgets to fix such problems and was more than happy to assist in our hour of need. New bit for pipe obtained and fitted, kiln finally lit at 11am.

Julian, who treated the whole event as a big scientific project kept a vigilant eye on the rate of temperature rise and made copius notes, even resorting to drawing a graph….on graph paper! at one point. The temperature was controlled to rise at an average of 150 degrees C per hour. We attempted to start reducing at 1000 degrees C, and thought that we had achieved this, as flames were shooting out of the peep hole and top vent and the dampers were half shut. The flame was lime green though and we thought that it must be something burning in one of the glazes. Turns out, with some investigation on google, that a green flame means that reduction has not yet been reached. Kiln turned off at 9.30pm after reaching 1260 degrees C, Orton Cone 8.

All we can do now is wait until tomorrow evening to check out the results…..tomorrow will be unbearable!!

Studious recording of temperature rise.....

....'The Pressure'.......!

Pyrometer - all the action is inside the kiln....nothing to take pictures of!